To Make Things Right
by Silenius
Summary: (AU) Using a forbidden jutsu, Kakashi sends himself back through time to prevent Sasuke from killing Naruto at the VotE. Will Kakashi be able to succeed as a teacher where once he failed? INDEFINITE HIATUS
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Naruto. All characters, techniques, and places described herein that are taken from the anime/manga Naruto are the creative property of Kishimoto Masashi. This fanfiction has been written solely for the purpose of entertainment and I do not seek to acquire any profit from it whatsoever.

**Summary:** (AU) Using a forbidden jutsu over five hundred years old, Kakashi sends himself back through time to prevent Sasuke from killing Naruto at the Valley of the End. Will Kakashi be able to succeed as a teacher where once he failed? Pairings will be decided by vote.

**Author's Preface:** This was an idea that slammed into my brain at one million miles per hour and refused to leave until I acknowledged it in some way. For those of you who are currently reading my story Naruto: Engoku no Kodomo, and may be wondering why I have not updated in so long, I have a job now and a bad case of the 'wow, this is turning out really crappy' bug. Every time I go to write a new chapter in Naruto: Engoku no Kodomo I start thinking about how incredibly retarded the good idea I had for it (or perhaps not-so-good idea) has become. So, though I absolutely HAVE NOT stopped writing it, and WILL NOT let it die, I urge you to bear with me as I write this as a means of getting through writer's block whilst I also go about the revamping of Naruto: Engoku no Kodomo.

**Once again, all pairings will be decided BY VOTE. I'm open to all pairings, crack or otherwise, so long as they are heterosexual pairings. I have nothing against yaoi/yuri, I just can't write it.**

"Blah" Normal speech.

'_Blah'_ Thoughts.

'_BLAH'_ Loud thinking, or Inner Sakura.

"BLAH" Loud shouting.

"**BLAH"** Speech of the Greater Beings (such as Kyuubi or Shinigami) or enraged shouting.

* * *

**Prologue**

The rain fell in mighty torrents, crashing into the river below in such rapid and powerful succession that all of the Valley of the End seemed to echo with a cacophony of deep roaring similar to what one might imagine would come from the throat of a hell-born demon. From within this mighty howl, one with enough talent and imagination might pick out the very emotions that the nature of this vast valley was feeling at this very moment. That is, of course, if one believed that nature could express emotion. Upon first thought, Anger would surely seem the most prominent, the powerful rain and fierce winds pounding against anything within a three mile radius with such fury that it seemed the very valley that had stood as a monument of strength and endurance in tribulation for little over a century would be wiped off the face of the planet before the night was done.

The true emotion, however, was not Anger. The feeling that ached within the heart of the earth, once more if one could assume the earth had a 'heart' capable of feeling anything, was Grief. The storm was the Grief of the world, unleashed in all its terrible splendor. Even the statues of the Kage of old, their eyes once icy cold and their expressions utterly emotionless, appeared to be grieving on this night. The rain hit their faces in just such a way that it appeared the statues of the ancient leaders were shedding impossible tears, the Shodaime Hokage's own especially clear. On this night, Konohagakure no Sato...no, all of Hi no Kuni...no, all the world even, had lost something very important, very special, very strong. On this night, a beacon of hope had been smite by that which would have been its brother.

Uzumaki Naruto was dead.

He lay in a pool of his own blood, a swiftly vanishing pool due to the rains mighty downpour. His clothes were in tatters, the worst of the damage an enormous hole in the center of the shirt beneath his bright orange jacket. Beyond the hole, where smooth white skin covering internal muscle and a healthy, beating heart should have been...there was nothing. A gaping hole slightly larger than the diameter of a twelve year-old boy's arm allowed a clear view of the surface of the rock that the blonde boy lay atop of. The demon within Uzumaki Naruto's body had not even been given a chance to filter his healing chakra into the boy's system, for the blonde's heart had been almost instantaneously disintegrated by the dark Chidori wielded by Uchiha Sasuke. The Uchiha would remember the look of utter shock upon his best friend's face just before his death, that look that seemed to turn to disappointment and even guilt (for so many promises would go unfulfilled) for all eternity. Not daring to look at his best friend's broken form any longer, lest he be driven mad by it, he fled from the scene, a brand new Mangekyou Sharingan kaleidoscope spinning in his red eyes for a brief moment.

The world grieved for the loss of its iron-willed, proud failure. No less than ten minutes after the raven-haired Uchiha had run away from the site of his heinous deed, his former teacher, Hatake Kakashi, arrived at the Valley.

Never before had the silver-haired Jounin been privy to the witnessing of such a horrible storm as that which wracked the area around and within the Valley of the End. He brought up his arm as a shield to ward off the wind and the rain the stung at his unprotected right eye. His ninken, a small brown pug by the name of Pakkun, looked up at him from the ground as his master lifted his hitai-ate to reveal his Sharingan. From his current vantage point, Kakashi attempted to see if his two students were still battling, though it was unlikely, given as there was no chakra signature anywhere. Given the enormous reserves possessed by both Naruto and Sasuke, and the fact that Pakkun said the trail ended in this Valley, that was an incredibly bad sign.

"The rain is too fierce for me to remain here!" Pakkun shouted at the Copy-nin over the roar of the wind and rain. "Call me again later if my assistance is needed!"

And with that, the dog puffed away in a small cloud of smoke.

Kakashi barely even registered the fact that his loyal summoning beast had been dismissed on account of the storm. He was too busy trying to spot something orange. Soon enough, thanks to the keen sight of his Sharingan, he found what he was looking for: an orange blotch upon the head of the farthest statue. Feeling a slight joy that he'd managed to find Naruto, though Sasuke had apparently escaped, the Copy-nin immediately gathered his chakra to his feet and bounded in long ninja strides to his blonde student's side. The sight that greeted him, however, stole all the energy that he'd possessed, and the silver-haired Jounin collapsed to his knees.

'_No...'_

Checking for a pulse was useless, but part of Kakashi's brain had already shut down from the sight of his student looking like a doughnut, so he did it anyway, placing two fingers on the blonde's icy cold neck. Nothing. Almost all of the boy's blood had drained from his body by this point, and Kakashi took note of the paleness of his student's (former student's) visage, the completely glazed-over eyes and, last but not least, the Copy-nin's detail-catching Sharingan came to rest once more on the hole in Naruto's chest that stared at him like the void. Immediately upon seeing it, Kakashi knew exactly what had caused it and felt a powerful need to vomit. He held it in as best he could.

'_My jutsu...'_

The Copy-nin had sworn he would never let another comrade die after Obito's own untimely demise. This resolve to protect his precious people had been reinforced once Rin left Konoha, and again after his sensei, the Yondaime Hokage, had sacrificed himself to seal the Kyuubi no Youko within the blonde boy on the ground before Kakashi. The seal had worked perfectly, at least, having linked the very souls of Naruto and the Kyuubi closely enough that the demon was now just as dead as the boy. But that didn't matter. What mattered was that the boy, Kakashi's student, his _comrade_, lay dead before him. And more than that...

'_By my own jutsu...'_

The Chidori had caused this damage. Kakashi's Sharingan, with it's better-than-photographic memory, recognized the form of the wound immediately. The Chidori. He'd taught it to Sasuke to defend himself against enemies like Orochimaru, but even more importantly, to protect his teammates, his _friends_, with the jutsu's power. Instead, Fate had decided to deal him an incredible slap to the face. The Chidori had been used in this battle, not to _defend_ a teammate, but to _kill_ a teammate. In the end, the situation was a terrible irony. The Chidori was never designed to defend in the first place, and had actually been listed as an assassination technique in the Bingo Book - it had been used, in essence, exactly the way it was made to. Sasuke knew how to perform it, knew what its power was, and with it he'd slain Naruto.

'_My technique...I...'_

Kakashi's body shook and he clenched his teeth as tears began to run down his face. He could not close his burning eyes, however, for they refused to look away from the hole, the _void_ that dominated Naruto's chest.

'_I...killed him...'_

In a gruesome sort of way, Kakashi was correct. Kakashi had taught Sasuke the Chidori, and Sasuke had used it to kill his best friend, Kakashi's other student. By not seeing Sasuke's lust for power taint him sooner, and by teaching the raven-haired Uchiha the only original technique of Sharingan no Kakashi, the infamous Chidori, the Copy-nin had inadvertently sentenced his blonde student to death. Kakashi's mind went into overdrive.

'_It's my fault...all of it...Obito...I have failed in my nindo...Naruto...I killed him...I killed him...I killed him...'_

Suddenly, the Copy-nin began to feel incredibly suffocated, and tore his mask from his face. Incapable of holding in his emotions any longer, Kakashi craned his neck upward to glare at the heavens and let out a wail of agony. The wail was so terrible, so full of anger, guilt, pain, misery, sadness, and self-loathing that for an entire minute it could be heard not only over the roar of the storm, but all the way back in Konohagakure, where the people turned their heads wondering what kind of terrible beast was dying. And, after that minute of wailing, the Copy-nin, though he'd seen far more than his fair share of death before, broke down and tossed his lunch, unconsciously making sure that his vomit would not touch Naruto.

After taking a few precious moments to regain what little composure he could, Kakashi replaced his mask on his face and looked at Naruto again.

'_That damn hole...'_

The ninja slowly reached out and grasped each of the ends of Naruto's jacket and pulled them closely together, zipping the bright orange coat up to hide the terrible void in Naruto's chest. But Kakashi knew it was still there. He steeled himself against his emotions as best he could, for he was still a very capable ninja when it came to maintaining his mental composure, and he closed Naruto's eyes and proceeded to ever-so-slowly work Naruto's body into a piggyback position on his back. Looking in the direction of Konohagakure, one thought had the audacity to cross the Copy-nin's mind.

'_Many people will be happy that the "Demon-child" is finally dead...'_

Kakashi snarled as he gathered chakra to his feet and began his trek back to his village.

'_I will make things right, Naruto. I should have done it right the first time, but I was too stupid. Sensei would be ashamed. Somehow, I will make things right.'_

And, as Kakashi disappeared from the Valley of the End, the corpse of his student in tow, the earth continued to cry and howl for the loss of its proud failure.

With the coming of night, the earth cried for Uzumaki Naruto.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Umino Iruka prided himself on being a man who could handle insane stress. After all, he had the stones to be an academy teacher, something that even made Tokubetsu Jounin Morino Ibiki shake in his size twelve combat boots. But when he'd been informed of the mission to retrieve the defector, Uchiha Sasuke, and that Uzumaki Naruto would be amongst the group of shinobi sent to retrieve said defector, he found himself incapable of controlling the worry he felt for his surrogate younger brother. He'd been pacing by the North Gate for hours, silently praying that nothing would go wrong. That was when the first member of the team sent out to recover Sasuke arrived. Upon seeing the state of the first of his former students to return, Iruka's heart fell.

Akimichi Chouji was in a terrible state on arrival, to say the least. He had overdosed on Akimichi Clan Signature Food Pills in a desperate attempt to defeat Jiroubou of the Sound Four, and teetered dangerously upon the very brink of death. His chakra coils suffered from terrible burn-out due to the massive output caused by the Food Pills, the Curry Pill especially, and he'd burned so much of the fat in his body that his internal organs and muscles were going into shock from the sudden change. In addition to that, his body possessed absolutely no chakra left to sustain even the most basic of functions, and his organs would start rotting within minutes if he was not treated immediately. Fortunately, the ANBU that had retrieved the young Genin rushed him to the hospital, where he was swiftly worked upon by the best medics Konoha had to offer at the moment, including the Godaime Hokage, Sannin no Tsunade. Had he arrived only minutes later, he would undoubtedly have died.

The second of those sent to return Sasuke to Konohagakure arrived in a state better than Chouji's, as it was not fatal, but the wounds still caused Iruka to wince. Apparently, Inuzuka Kiba had the misfortune of facing off against Sakon and Ukon of the Sound Four, the latter of which utilized a strange ability to merge with the bodies of other people. Kiba and his ninken familiar, a puppy by the name of Akamaru, put up a valiant fight but were unable to best Sakon and Ukon by themselves, especially after Kiba was forced to wound himself to drive the parasitic Ukon out of his body. Kiba and Akamaru were saved by Sabaku no Kankurou, the brother of the newly elected Kazekage of Sunagakure no Sato, Sabaku no Gaara. Iruka learned from Kankurou that Tsunade had sent for Hidden Sand Village, now allies with the Leaf, to aid in the retrieval of Uchiha Sasuke. When the Godaime Kazekage learned that Uzumaki Naruto was part of the group sent to return Sasuke to Hidden Leaf Village, he immediately took it upon himself and his siblings to personally assist the person who gave him back his humanity.

Iruka's spirit was lifted slightly when he saw how little damage Nara Shikamaru had taken in his fight against Tayuya of the Sound Four, the recently promoted Chuunin possessing only a broken finger, many thanks owed to Sabaku no Temari, who'd shown up to kill Tayuya herself when Shikamaru's situation looked its bleakest. Whatever hope he'd gotten from Shikamaru's arrival was dashed, however, upon seeing the bruised, broken, and bleeding form of Hyuuga Neji.

The Branch House prodigy of the Hyuuga Clan fought against the highly skilled and intelligent Kidoumaru of the Sound Four, and the reason he survived the encounter was thanks in no small part to the three-hundred and fifty-nine degree vision granted to him by his Kekkei Genkai, the Byakugan. Neji's body was full of holes and possessed an astronomical amount of superficial lacerations, blood oozing out from just about everywhere on his body other than his face, but his ability to see had given the edge he needed to dodge a great majority of Kidoumaru's strikes, and manipulate those that did hit him into a non-fatal region of his body. Neji, like Chouji, was rushed to the hospital with tremendous speed and given the absolute best of care. Thanks to the magnificent work of Konoha medical specialists, he was brought to a stable condition in no time flat.

The last of Iruka's former students to come through the gate was Rock Lee, who'd actually been instructed _not_ to leave the infirmary, as he still needed to recover from intensive surgery. The very person whom made it necessary for Lee to undergo any kind of surgery in the first place turned out to be his savior. Sabaku no Gaara, Godaime Kazekage and youngest of the siblings from Sunagakure no Sato, had arrived in the nick of time to assist Lee against the near-unstoppable power of Kimimaro of the Bone Pulse. Regardless of the fact that Kimimaro had been killed (though it was admittedly more due to his disease than either Lee's or Gaara's attempts to subdue him), the Godaime (who had finished with patients in the hospital and was awaiting Naruto's return) promptly berated Lee both for both his disobeying of her orders and his accidental consumption of her sake. Iruka's own worry was lifted at the light-hearted scenes of Tsunade scolding Lee, and Maito Gai declaring how the 'flames of youth still burned brighter than ever' in his beloved student. Yet, even with the joviality that was restored when Lee arrived, Iruka had a nagging feeling in the back of his mind that something horrible had happened to Naruto.

An hour after Lee and Gaara had arrived in Konohagakure, Iruka' eyes were finally greeted by the sight of Hatake Kakashi carrying an orange bundle on his back. Iruka immediately ran towards the Copy-nin, going into 'concerned parent mode' at the sight of the seemingly unconscious Naruto, though he had every notion that as soon as he went to ask if Naruto was alright, the blonde boy would look up at him with a foxy grin and give some kind of nervous apology for overexerting himself while rubbing the back of his head. As Iruka drew closer to the masked Jounin that carried his former student, however, Iruka began to notice how incredibly pale Naruto looked, how his body did not rise and fall with steady intakes of breath, and the look of utter tiredness (rather than the usual look of boredom) in Sharingan no Kakashi's lone eye. Quickly, he stepped in front Kakashi's path and looked the silver-haired Jounin in the eye. Kakashi could not lock eye(s) with the academy teacher for long, and soon he averted his gaze.

As if he had gleaned the entire story from that gaze alone, but could not bear the truth, Iruka rushed over to the unmoving Naruto's side and removed him from Kakashi's back. Kakashi did not bother to stop him from doing so. Tears beginning to form in his eyes at what might have happened, Iruka lay Naruto on the ground, lightly shaking his surrogate brother's lifeless form in a fruitless attempt to wake him.

"Naruto, wake up," he quietly spoke. "Wake up, you brat. Naruto, get your lazy ass up or I'll never treat you to ramen again."

Knowing that, no matter what his condition, Naruto would have awoken from even the deepest of slumbers from such a threat, Iruka finally snapped, the volume of his crazed shouting reaching such a level that he'd actually beaten Gai's all-time record. Tears strolled down the Chuunin's face in mighty streams as he gripped the dead boy by each shoulder and increased the vigor of his shakes. Those around him could only watch, tears of their own slowly being shed as he began spiraling into a breakdown.

"NARUTO, WAKE UP! PLEASE WAKE UP! NARUTO, DON'T LEAVE ME! I'LL DO ANYTHING, JUST COME BACK! PLEASE, NARUTO, I HAVE NO ONE! YOU WERE THE ONLY SEMBLANCE OF FAMILY I HAD LEFT! NARUTO, WAKE UP! NARUTO! **NARUTO!**"

Fate seemed apt to drive Iruka into insanity for, in the fatal moment when Iruka clutched Naruto's head to his chest in the two's last sorrowful embrace, the blonde boy's zipper broke clean off his jacket, opening up to reveal the gaping hole in his chest. Iruka's eyes looked at the hole and, given his textbook knowledge of all jutsu in Konohagakure, he immediately knew what jutsu it was that had caused the damage.

Iruka's eyes widened, as did the eyes of everyone else who was present, as he stared at charred void where his student's heart should have been. Suddenly, his eyes narrowed and twitched with uncontrollable rage. As gently as possible, he lay Naruto back on the ground and sharply turned to face Kakashi.

With an almost god-like swiftness that nobody in the village knew Iruka possessed, the academy teacher was in front of the Jounin, sending him rocketing into the North Wall with such a fierce punch to the face that, under normal circumstances, Tsunade herself would have been impressed. The surprise on Kakashi's face was evident, even with his mask, but Iruka allowed no time for him to recover. In less than moments, Iruka was once more in front of Kakashi, holding the ninja by the collar of his vest with one arm and delivering an astounding flurry of punches to the silver-haired Jounin's body with the other, his eyes blazing with rage, his body pulsing with a sickly-looking green chakra. Maito Gai immediately realized that the Chuunin had unconsciously opened several of his body's Celestial Gates.

"**IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT!"** shouted the crazed Iruka, as he pummeled the Jounin (who would not fight back) with everything he had.** "YOU TAUGHT THE TRAITOR THAT TECHNIQUE! IT SHOULD BE YOU LYING THERE WITH A HOLE IN YOUR CHEST, NOT NARUTO! NOT MY OTOUTOU! I'LL KILL YOU!!!"**

Iruka would not be able to keep his word, as those who had at first been too shocked at the academy teacher's actions to do anything immediately regained their senses and sprung into action. It took every able body there to restrain him, however, as he had apparently opened a grand total of seven of the eight Celestial Gates in his rage. Only after Tsunade knocked him out with a chakra-enhanced chop did he go down, and still his body twitched madly, as if he was trying his absolute best to beat Hatake Kakashi to a bloody pulp, even in unconsciousness. Kakashi, though he was badly bruised and bleeding from several points on his body, waved off everyone who attempted to assist him. Silently, with varying degrees of pain and a terrible limp in his right leg, Kakashi moved over to Naruto's side and kneeled next to him. With a mighty heave, he lifted the boy of the ground.

Slowly, he looked over at the unconscious Iruka and then shifted his gaze to the Godaime (who was actually doing her best not to punch Kakashi at least once herself).

"Let's take -cough- Iruka to the infirmary," he said, a dark splotch forming on the front of his mask from the blood he'd just coughed up. "And..."

Everyone looked at him, waiting.

"...let's begin the arrangement's for Naruto's funeral."

* * *

So, what do you think? Time-travel has been done to death, but I haven't seen one where Kakashi is the one to go through time. I did my best to make it emotionally gripping. Please leave a review if you would like me to continue this story. My original intention for it was actually more of a two-part starter pack for other authors to use and continue on their own, but if I get enough positive feedback I may very well make it into a full-fledged story. That doesn't mean I'll drop Naruto: Engoku no Kodomo, so fans of that need not be worried. Anyways, please leave a review if you liked it. 

-Silenius-


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Naruto. It is the creative work of Masashi Kishimoto, and I am just borrowing his characters for fun.

**Author's Note: **I'm gonna try to make this quick. Thank you all so very much for your reviews and responses to this story. I must admit, I was much more than just pleasantly surprised by the number of reviews the first chapter received. I was planning on keeping it a one-shot, but given the fact that there was such a large outcry for me to continue writing this, I shall heed your words. This chapter is a bit rushed, as well as abominably small and pathetic, for I've had little time outside of my real life to get to work on it, but I hope my attempts will be satisfying, at least until I can get more free time. If you still want me to continue with the story after this chapter, I promise that subsequent chapters will have significantly more length and depth. Also, I feel it necessary to mention that, being as my goal with this story was to be different from typical time-travel stories, Kakashi may not actually arrive in the past until about chapter four, though that decision is not set in stone. As for the questions many of you reviewers had...I will have to answer each of them separately, so please, read & review this chapter, so that this time around I can take the time to reply to everyone and get all the input I need to make this story great. Thank you and enjoy.

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_The Morning After Naruto's Death..._

Uzumaki Naruto's funeral proceedings certainly did not have a turnout as large as that of the recently deceased Sandaime Hokage. In fact, there were but a moderate few that bothered to come at all. The Village Council, regardless of Tsunade's pleas, had declared the day a national holiday since the 'Demon Child' had been slain. Needless to say, the peasantry was so busy celebrating in the village that Naruto's service actually had to be moved to a small clearing in the woods outside Konoha. The blonde boy, whom had unconditionally loved and defended his village with all of his heart and soul, would not even receive the privilege of being buried within its walls. To add insult to injury, the Village Council overturned Tsunade's order to place Naruto's name on the Memorial Stone, stating that 'demons deserved no such honor'. Those who had seen the meeting could tell it took every ounce of Tsunade's self-control not to commit a mass homicide, but one good thing had indeed occurred, in a macabre sort of way. With Naruto's death, the Sandaime Hokage's Law of Silence in regards to the Kyuubi no Yoko's imprisonment within him was lifted. The good news about this? All of the young shinobi that were made aware of the information turned out to be a great deal more intelligent than their predecessors, and they looked upon Naruto as the hero he was truly meant to be. That, however, did not make it any less painful for them to bury their comrade.

Of the people who attended Naruto's service, all but two were shinobi, the two non-shinobi attendants being none other than Ichiraku Teuchi and his daughter Ayame, the owners of Naruto's favorite ramen stand. Amongst the assorted shinobi in attendance were Team 8, Team 10, and Team Gai, along with each team's respective sensei. Those members of each team who were supposed to be bedridden still showed up, stubbornly refusing to miss it for anything. Even Umino Iruka, whom everyone believed would be out of commission (read 'on life support') for quite some time, actually managed to awaken from unconsciousness two hours before the funeral was scheduled to start. Upon awakening, he demanded - not asked, _demanded -_ that he be temporarily released from the hospital and taken to watch the proceedings. Sarutobi Asuma and Maito Gai did the honors of carrying him on a stretcher to the ceremony. Almost frighteningly, Asuma was not smoking, and Gai was dressed in traditional shinobi funeral attire, rather than his outlandish green spandex (or any form of spandex in general). Also to the shock of everyone, though he was clearly in physical and emotional pain, Iruka remained conscious for the entire funeral thereafter. Never speaking so much as a single word, the academy teacher did nothing but silently cry the entire time. His melancholy was shared by many that were present, including the young Konohamaru Corps, the trio having placed the box-shaped 'rock' disguise they made by his open coffin as a symbol of their never-dying devotion to their 'Boss'.

The various ANBU who had watched over Naruto in his youth attended the funeral, along with Chuunin Exam proctors Mitarashi Anko, Morino Ibiki, and Shiranui Genma, accompanied by his best friend Namiashi Raidou, and also Tsunade's apprentice Shizune. Sannin no Jiraiya made an effort to stay at the funeral for as long as possible, but found the dead visage of his pupil to look so much like the deceased Yondaime Hokage that he had to leave before his grief became too noticeable. Hyuuga Hiashi, Head of the Hyuuga Clan, came out of respect for what Naruto had done to help Neji overcome the bulk of his hatred toward the Main House. The other reason was to lend Hinata what little support he felt she might need, though he was still incredibly ignorant to the true level of pain in her heart. Other parents were in attendance as well, including the original Ino-Shika-Chou trio, Inuzuka Tsume, and Aburame Shibi.

Sabaku no Gaara and his siblings were present at the service, the very recently elected Godaime Kazekage**(1)** paying his respects to his fellow Jinchuuriki, the person who showed him the true meaning of strength and the true purpose of one's existence. Temari and Kankurou did the same, each having developed a certain level of respect for the deceased boy for giving their little brother back his humanity. However, their stay at the ceremony, as well as in all Fire Country, remained incredibly short. Many were well aware, watching the three ninja leave, that the recently developed Suna-Konoha Alliance hung by a thin thread...and it took the form of the blonde child in the coffin before them.

The last, whom many ignorant attendees considered possibly the most important person to arrive at Uzumaki Naruto's funeral, was none other than his pink-haired teammate, Haruno Sakura. The vast majority of the attendees were quick to assume the young kunoichi knew Naruto best out of everyone there (Iruka being the exception), since she was a member of his team. Others, though a select few, were well aware of the truth. Haruno Sakura hadn't known her teammate at all. But they kept their peace out of respect for the deceased boy.

When Tsunade asked Sakura to give a short eulogy as the last member of Team 7 (nix Uchiha Sasuke, who was now officially a nuke-nin), the girl complied. But, to the surprise of all, she said absolutely nothing. Looking back, the girl realized there were few times in her life that she ever thought of Naruto in a positive way. She'd always tailed Sasuke in every respect, regardless of the fact that Naruto was so infatuated with her that he practically worshipped the ground she walked on. She never knew the real Naruto - and honestly never tried - only the image of an annoying blonde kid that followed her everywhere. Now that she understood what his life must have been like, now that she knew she had been in the presence of a hero and not just some annoying prankster, she came to understand that she was unworthy to speak of the blonde as if she knew him. Thus, she chose not to speak at all. When the pink-haired kunoichi approached Naruto's coffin only to remain silent, however, at least one person in the audience took it as a blatant insult to the boy's memory.

Pale lavender eyes glared at the pink-haired girl from a distance, and Hyuuga Hinata clenched her fists until her knuckles were white. Never before in her life had Hinata ever felt true hatred, but that was the only way she could describe the feeling within her as she watched the muted Sakura. To the bleary-eyed Hyuuga heiress it seemed that the pink-haired girl did not have the modesty to cry, simply staring at the blonde boy in the coffin, as if she _still_ could not decide whether he or the traitorous Uchiha were the one more deserving of her attention. Hinata wanted to shout at her, scream that the girl was never worthy of Naruto-kun's love and affection, but instead she followed Sakura's lead and said nothing. Naruto-kun would not have liked her to yell at the girl he so admired, even if Hinata admired Naruto an infinite number of times more than Sakura ever would or could (though she did so in secret). And so, being as she'd never continue entertaining a thought of something that would make (correction - would have _made_) Naruto-kun unhappy, the girl simply buried her head into her father's kimono and cried. Hyuuga Hiashi silently wrapped one arm around his daughter's shoulders. Somehow, Hiashi's own heart softened by attending Naruto's service. He made a note in his mind to speak with Hinata, truly speak the way a true father would, after the funeral.

Hatake Kakashi stayed at the funeral for but a few short minutes. It was not out of disrespect for his student, nor was it that he did not care he just simply could not stay. He could not handle another blank stare from the cold, dead, tearful eyes of Umino Iruka, could not handle hearing another heart-wrenching sob from the throat of Hyuuga Hinata. The guilt he felt within his heart made him feel unworthy to even be near the service for his deceased student. And so, with there being nothing else he could do, he left.

By the end of it all, Uzumaki Naruto was buried with the highest of merits, receiving a posthumous promotion from Genin straight to Jounin, along with the Golden Shuriken for 'Courage and Valor Above and Beyond the Call of Duty'. In addition to these, the highest-ranking shinobi at the funeral performed a Twenty-One Tag Solute, throwing twenty-one kunai connected to explosive tags into the air and setting them off in succession. The blonde Jinchuuriki's gravestone read:

_Here Lies Uzumaki Naruto_

_Jailer of the Kyuubi_

_Shinobi of the Leaf_

_He Who Would Have Been Hokage_

_Believe It_

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Time passed. Most things stayed the same. Many things, many people, did not. Umino Iruka resigned from his position as an academy teacher a short time after he was well enough to function at a civilian level within the village. After his resignation, he underwent a series of non-violent, casual interrogations about his ability to unlock so many of his Celestial Gates, whilst also being rehabilitated for active duties. When Iruka asked to simply show his skill in a testing ring, the results were mind-boggling. He'd been discreetly training himself all of his life, pushing himself beyond normal boundaries, working his mind, body and spirit to levels that could only be compared to dead-lasts such as Rock Lee and even the late Uzumaki Naruto. He was well beyond the capabilities of any standard Jounin, let alone a lowly Chuunin Academy Teacher**(2)**. The council was infuriated to hear of the hiding of his abilities, demanding a swift punishment of the highest caliber (a punishment likely requested more on the fact that Iruka had been kind to Naruto when the boy was alive more than due to the heinousness of his 'crime'). Tsunade easily overturned their ruling on Iruka's offense by using her executive powers to grant him a full pardon. After the entire debacle was over, Iruka asked for active duty in any position available within the ANBU. By the time his application was processed, a short twenty-four hour wait, he was Lieutenant of the prestigious Tiger Squad, under the simple codename 'Sensei'.

Hyuuga Hinata became positively ferocious. The young girl threw herself into her training, working day and night, striving for utter perfection, fighting tooth and nail to be as devoted to bettering herself as her beloved Naruto once was. Within only a short time, she no longer cared about receiving praise from her father, though he readily gave it to her now. Within no time, she lost all semblance of self-doubt (including her once ever-present stutter). Within no time, her abilities increased twofold, fourfold, sixteenfold, thirty-twofold, sixty-fourfold, one hundred and twenty-eightfold. However, the most impressive feat of all was that she swiftly surpassed her younger sister, and could now go toe-to-toe with Neji (the current score between them being 86-87, in Hinata's favor). She became a Chuunin during a private examination a few months before the next official Chuunin Selection Exam, and a Jounin at precisely the same time as Neji the following month. All the while, as she climbed the rungs of the Ladder of Achievement, she thought only of her blonde champion, and how proud he must be as he gazes down at her from the heavens.

The last of the lives so greatly affected by Naruto's passing turned out to be none other than his very own trio of followers, the Konohamaru Corps. (who renamed themselves the Disciples of Uzumaki). They, like Hinata, completely immersed themselves in their training and studies. The three of them spent endless nights at the Shinobi Library, and countless training sessions with Ebisu, Iruka on occasion, and shortly afterward, Sannin no Jiraiya himself. The Toad Sage felt it necessary to complete the training of his pupil's first 'Genin Team', since Naruto could clearly never do so. That is not to say he did not enjoy teaching the trio. Needless to say, Konohamaru's, Moegi's, and Udon's abilities reached new heights so fast that Jiraiya commented to Tsunade, "the Disciples of Uzumaki are more than likely going to replace the Densetsu no Sannin in the history books. And this time around, there will be no traitors amidst them to muck it all up."

Naruto's death drove a good many people to try and better themselves, but even with all of the progress that was being made, quite a few stressed the thought that, were he still alive, things would somehow be a lot...better. Even those who had once despised Naruto could soon feel the terrible gap the deceased boy left within Konohagakure no Sato's heart, and they understood too little, too late how wrong they had been. But no matter how hard they tried, nobody could see the big picture. Nobody but one man, a man who disappeared from the Shinobi life after his student's demise, a man desperately trying to find something, anything, to make things right again, could ever see just how important Uzumaki Naruto was. And because he was the only one he knew that could see the big picture, he would have to be the one to discover the way to fix things.

After a time, the answer struck Hatake Kakashi harder than the slab of rock that crushed Uchiha Obito.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

If one said Hatake Kakashi was not suited to civilian life, they would be right. He attempted to live out the normal life of any typical citizens of Konoha, but just couldn't. He found himself constantly drawing back into seclusion, likely all because of this one very strange thing that mulled within his tired mind after another fruitless day of living quietly whilst discreetly searching for answers, something Kakashi had not thought of since his childhood. This strange thing happened to be something his late father, Hatake Sakumo, once told him. It was an odd occurrence indeed that Kakashi would think of his father so many years after his seppuku, but it came just as simply as it would have had he pondered about it all his life. He remembered that, in the incredibly far gone years when his father was still alive, he'd been told a great secret. Beneath the Hatake Clan House, carefully hidden in an obscure part of the basement, rested the entrance to a very special room. It was a room where, if one could activate the legendary Hatake White Chakra and perform the special technique, one could create a miracle.

And so that was why Hatake Kakashi, his body still possessing a phantom ache from the beating he received from Iruka so long ago, even after many months of rest and rehab, was currently stalking through the basement of the abandoned Hatake Clan House like some kind of prowler. If memory served, within the room Kakashi would find the means of obtaining the answers he so desperately sought - a way of fulfilling his promise to make things right to Naruto. But soon the day was done, and since Kakashi had not found hide or hair of the secret room, he gathered everything from his home (including the long-deceased husk of his houseplant Uki-kun) and moved back into his Clan House.

That day turned to night, night turned to day again, the days turned to weeks, and those weeks turned to months. Kakashi was now hardly ever seen outside of the Hatake Clan House except on days when he went to check out scrolls and books from the Shinobi Library, a place that still allowed him access due to his being a veteran ninja. Most things he checked out involved some kind of applied science, crackpot jutsu, or quantum theory, and all things he took from the library involved one unvarying factor - Time. One with enough wit could guess at what was driving him to research something as dynamic and ever-changing as Time, why he devoted so much time trying to figure out what made Time tick, or why he holed himself up in his once-vacant Clan House. But if that witty someone took a single look at him in his current state, they'd not have the heart to call him on his ideas.

Hatake Kakashi was but a shadow of the man he once was. Having resigned from the ranks of the Konohagakure shinobi, he no longer wore his Leaf hitai-ate, his outfit of loose black slacks, green vest over long-sleeved black T-shirt, or his mask. Yes, even his mask had been cast aside with the rest of his former lifestyle. It was not as though it mattered, for his face still remained hidden and unrecognizable by way of extremely overgrown facial hair. In his long seclusion from society, the emotionally aggrieved former Jounin had neglected to shave, and was now sporting a beard of a thickness nearly four times that of Sarutobi Asuma. Add to this the fact that Kakashi's natural hair-color was a shade of silvery gray and you would soon understand why nobody that looked at him would think he was only twenty-six. The man he was now was slovenly, almost filthy, wearing no more than a gray tank-top, faded green shorts, an eye-patch to hide and block his Sharingan, and a pair of cheap zouri on his feet. And, as was apparent to anyone who stood close to him for a prolonged period of time, he did not bathe often.

There was a method to his madness, of course. Upon situating himself in his old Clan House, Kakashi devoted all of his time to finding that special room for the entirety of his stay, hardly ever leaving the house - the basement, in fact - for anything aside from food, sleep, scrolls, or the restroom. Sometimes not even those. He worked endlessly - morning, noon, and night - looking for the room, looking for the answers to the questions that continued to plague his mind.

His hard work eventually paid off when, at long last, slightly more than a year after Naruto's death, he finally discovered the incredibly elusive room that his father once told him existed beneath the Hatake home. Or rather, he found the _door_ to the incredibly elusive room. The first part of his journey for answers, his journey for a way to make things right, had finally reached its end. Now came a much trickier part of the quest - finding out how to open the blasted entrance.

* * *

**(1):** When I began this story, I was under the impression Gaara was made Kazekage at the same time his outfit changed, so please forgive this discrepancy. It is an AU, after all.

**(2):** I gave Iruka this much power because I love his character. He has always been high on my favorites list (though my #1 will always be Rock Lee). For those of you saying, "Where was this power during such things as the Mizuki fight or the Invasion of Konoha?" my answer is simple. He hid his power in its entirety for the sole fact that, although he continued to train excessively, he enjoyed being seen as a 'lowly academy teacher'. That is, until Naruto's death, at which point he no longer gave a crap if anybody knew he was so strong. Pummeling Kakashi, even if he wasn't fighting back, was worth it.

**Author's Note:** This chapter wasn't nearly as powerful or gripping as my first, but I believe this story still holds a lot of potential, so I'm gonna keep on truckin'. I will admit, it is mainly filler that I had to think up in order to create a way for Kakashi to 'stumble' upon his means to an ends. And, as much as I despise the American translations and dubbing, putting 'Believe it' on the gravestone was something I could not walk away from, as corny as it probably sounded.

Please leave a review so that I might understand how to better the story. Oh, and please consider casting a vote for your favorite heterosexual pairings. Both reviews that I have received that actually gave ideas offered yaoi pairings right away (though one did offer up hetero pairings, as well) but yaoi and yuri are not things I am comfortable writing. I have nothing against yaoi, or those who enjoy it, but I cannot write it. Aside from that, all votes will be considered and entered into my idea bank (except Sasuke x Hinata, because I just can't stand it), and I will take votes regarding any characters from heroes to villains, so feel free to post an entire list's worth if you'd like.

Also, do you have an interest in making a believable, non-Mary Sue OC? Ever wanted one, but never wanted to deal with the headache of writing? Perhaps you might like them added to _this_ story to save you the trouble? Then send me a suggestion! If the cry for recognition is strong enough, I might just throw your character in since I will need new plot elements later on down the line, anyway. Sorry, but no Kakashi x OC or Sasuke x OC pairings, fangirls.

Thanks again for all of your support!

-Silenius-


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Naruto. It is the creative work of Masashi Kishimoto, and I am just borrowing his characters for fun.

**Author's Note:** Yes. It has literally been years, but I have updated. It is not a good chapter by any means and is probably less than you expected. That, however, can be explained by the fact that I have been miserable for the past two years trying to cope with this terrible thing called _reality_ and the agony that is my life in the military. I have simply had no time. Though, if you saw my new story posted recently, THAT piece of garbage was born as I waded through some of the worst writer's block sewage I've ever experienced.

Anyway, I'm gonna try to continue this story to the best of my ability. If any of the fans I had for the first two chapters are still around I beg your forgiveness and ask that you have patience with me. Please, don't lose hope. And if I don't meet your expectations, tell me so that I might fix it.

----

Most people in the world are quite fond of sunny days, points of time in which to bask in the brightness of all around oneself. Precious days like these, full of light and warmth, most often bring about nostalgia. They leave ordinary folks dwelling on those happy times in their lives, those bright and beautiful days long past, and it brings a smile to their face like few things really can. It was unfortunate that Umino Iruka had not smiled on such days for a long while. Sunny days did make him think back to points earlier in his life. And the memories there were, indeed, truly happy ones…

…But they did not make him smile.

The simple truth of the matter was that such days reminded Iruka far too much of those perfect times when a sudden explosion somewhere would shake the foundations of his village. Then, immediately afterward, Uzumaki Naruto would come leaping out of the chaos, grinning with that patented foxy look of his while expertly managing to avoid capture by entire teams of Chuunin and Jounin. Meanwhile, the rest of Konohagakure no Sato would be left to look upon the blonde's handiwork.

But that was in the past. There would be no explosions today, no copious amounts of toilet paper strewn about the Tower of Fire, nor paint upon the faces of the Hokage of old. There would be no teams of Chuunin and Jounin chasing after an attention-starved shinobi-in-training, no loud but half-hearted scolding from the stressed academy teacher, no discussions with the Hokage…

…There would be no Uzumaki Naruto.

Iruka sighed heavily, a rare display of emotion from the frequently stoic ANBU commander. His current line of travel would take him down the road to one of the few places that he still gave half a damn about, one of very few places where he could be in the company of people like himself. People who still _cared_. People who cared that Konoha had lost the one thing, the one person, that made it brightest of all…

Ichiraku Ramen could barely support itself since that fateful day when they lost their number one customer. The owners, Ichiraku Teuchi and his daughter Ayame, paid no real mind to how poor they'd become. They took great pride and satisfaction in turning away every single Konoha citizen who approached their shop looking for a bite "now that the demon brat wasn't tainting the place." The two of them none too pleasantly booted out anyone who spoke poorly of their favorite customer, and most who had not attended Naruto's funeral service. The exception, of course, were shinobi who were not able to come due to missions.

That being said, Iruka was surprised to find he would not be dining alone that day.

Sitting on what was once a certain blonde prankster's favorite stool, long blue-black hair cascading down the length of the back of her oversized jacket, was Hyuuga Hinata, heiress of the prestigious Hyuuga Clan. Iruka couldn't help it; despite a year of being as stoic as stone, he found himself smiling as he sat down next to his former academy student.

"This seat taken, miss?" he asked, allowing more of his old humor to creep into his voice than he would have even believed he possessed anymore.

"Not at all, Iruka-sensei," replied Hinata, turning ever so slightly to grace him with a very small smile of her own. She could spare such a gesture for the man who'd been like a brother to the boy she admired.

"Really, Hinata-san," Iruka spoke with a faux pout, "I've told you before that you don't have to call me 'sensei' anymore."

"A force of habit I suppose…Iruka-sensei."

Sarcasm. Iruka wondered if he should be proud of himself for being one of the few people Hinata would still joke with.

The former teacher couldn't help but be amazed at how much the young girl had changed since Naruto's death. What he had once thought to be little more than a childhood crush - for Iruka certainly _knew_ about it - had turned out to be so much more, going well beyond the bounds of common infatuation. Though the blond shinobi had never come to realize it while living, he'd managed to completely and utterly capture Hinata's heart. And what was more, within the year that had passed since Naruto's murder at the hands of Uchiha Sasuke, the devotion of the Hyuuga heiress for her deceased love had driven her to reach astounding new levels of strength.

"Naruto would be very proud of you, you know," Iruka found himself saying aloud.

Hinata's chopsticks came to a halt over her bowl of ramen. Shortly thereafter there came the steady sound of teardrops falling into noodle broth. Iruka should have expected this to happen, and he silently cursed himself for letting the blonde's name slip out. Though she surely had a will of stone now, Naruto remained an emotional subject for Hinata, especially when she was at a particularly nostalgic place like Ichiraku's. So, realizing it would be uncouth to remain, the ANBU commander rose from his seat and left the stand without a word, disregarding that he had not gotten to eat. He couldn't stay and say nothing, after all. He could not console her knowing that his words would be empty.

This set him once more to wandering the roads of the village, and he found that his mood was quickly souring. Discovering himself on the same street as the home of Hatake Kakashi did nothing to improve it. He frowned and glared at the front gate.

'_One of these days I'm going to finish what I began on the day of Naruto's death, Hatake,'_ he thought, speaking in his head as though he were actually having a conversation with the silver-haired former ninja._ 'I'll start with Sasuke first, so you have a little time left. But rest assured that after I cut out his heart and leave nothing but a gaping hole in its place, your punishment shall swiftly follow.'_

Umino Iruka continued on his way with a twisted smile, his mood now infinitely improved at his thoughts of slowly removing a screaming Uchiha Sasuke's still-beating heart.

-----

For Hatake Kakashi, finding his elusive door truly was the easy part of his quest. The way to walk through it, however, proved more…complicated. The riddle was simple enough - 'What did the Hatake Clan possess that would allow them, and only them, to use this hidden tool?' - and because of its simplicity and Kakashi's natural wit, it was easily solved. The answer was the Hatake Clan's _White Chakra_. Unfortunately, therein lay the problem. There was only one known way for him to access his clan's Kekkei Genkai - his father's broken ninjato.

'_So that's the way it'll have to be, eh?'_

If Kakashi wanted to have any hope at all of entering his father's chamber, he would need to have the short sword repaired. It presented a powerful dilemma in his mind. The ninjato of Hatake Sakumo, the White Fang of Konoha, was the symbol that comprised everything in Kakashi's troubled past before the death of the Yondaime. Years worth of rage, humiliation, self-loathing and grief made physical in the shape of a shinobi tool. Simply pulling it from its storage place would mean facing all of that again. Repairing it would mean facing those terrors and _moving on_. Could he say he was prepared to let go of his past? Could he say he was prepared to stop blaming himself for Obito's death and Rin's disappearance? Could he finally, truly forgive his father for dying so shamefully and leaving him all alone?

Kakashi stared at the door, as though it might provide him with the answer, and his mind drifted to the image of a gaping hole in the chest of a blonde boy. The vividness of Uzumaki Naruto's cold, lifeless blue eyes replayed in his mind, accompanied by the tears and passionate fury of Umino Iruka as he beat Kakashi mercilessly. The grave of a boy who lived and breathed only to one day protect a village full of people who hated him, a village that would not allow him to be buried within its walls. These thoughts in his head, Kakashi knew what the answer was.

It was never a matter of whether he could or could not. He was responsible, indirectly or not, for the death of the one person in Konohagakure who deserved a full life more than anyone else - the most selfless, passionate and surprising shinobi Kakashi had ever known. It was Kakashi's _duty_ to do this, his past be damned. Kakashi exited the basement chamber of the Hatake Clan House and headed for the one room he swore he would never again enter. The personal quarters of Hatake Sakumo, his father.

Everything in the room was covered in a thick blanket of dust. Several cobwebs extended across the corners of the ceiling and between the bedside drawer and the wall. He had not entered this room since the day he'd placed the broken ninjato within its confines, and it unnerved him slightly to see it once again. He stepped inside slowly, coughing softly as he disturbed the dust layering the floor. He walked over to his father's closet and stood before it for a short time, simply gazing at the sliding doors. He idly noted he'd been staring at doors quite often as of late. If he recalled, some of his father's clothes were still within the wardrobe, untouched and unworn since the day he committed Seppuku. Slowly, Kakashi extended his hand out and slid the door open.

More dust and the pungent scent of mothballs assaulted his nose, and he broke out into a short coughing fit. After recovering, Kakashi knelt down on one knee, peering at the object of his search. A small black box, gray now with the dust covering it, two feet long and four inches wide, sat on the floor beneath the hanging garments. He took a deep breath, using caution not to inhale too much of the dust again. He reached with both hands, sliding them along the top of the box. The blade held within was broken, its power greatly diminished, but Kakashi could feel it still. The power was still there. Gently grasping each side of the small package, the former shinobi rose to his feet.

Part of him actually wanted to open the box and look at the blade once more, but Kakashi quickly squashed the thought. He didn't want to see the blade while it was still broken. He would look upon it once more after it was repaired and not a moment sooner. And there was only one person who could repair his father's blade…

Suddenly, he came to a realization and ran a hand through the thick scruff of his beard, sparing a sniff for his clothing and armpits. If he intended to go and see the man who could repair the Sword of White Fang, he would need clean clothes, a shave and - most especially - a _bath_.

-----

Masamune Tenrai was, by no stretch of the imagination, the most well known weapon-smith in the entirety of the Five Great Countries. In fact, his lineage was so famous for their prowess that every nation actively sought to acquire their talents for their own gain. Throughout the course of his life, as well as his father's and grandfather's lives, the Masamune name had become so famous that it was actually dangerous.

With the Third Secret War still a recent wound upon the face of the shinobi world, the desire for supremacy still ran rampant throughout the land. The samurai armies of the Daimyo, as well as the shinobi of the Hidden Villages, needed to be well-equipped. And when it came to forging tools of war, the Masamune Clan reigned supreme. Unfortunate though it might be, it was for that very reason that he and the rest of his family possessed no surname in the Konoha Citizens' Registry.

People were sometimes curious, of course. No surname typically meant no clan, but there were plenty enough of people without titles or the prestige of clans like the Hyuuga or the Uchiha for anybody to take too much interest. It was one of the few things that allowed Tenrai's young daughter to have a relatively normal childhood. That, however, did not mean that there was no one who knew the secret of Tenrai's family. So when Hatake Kakashi showed up on the blacksmith's doorstep, significantly cleaned up and dressed in his old shinobi attire and an unmistakable box held in his right hand, the gravity of the situation did not go unnoticed.

"Hatake-san," spoke Tenrai, crossing his arms and looking gravely at the silver-haired shinobi. "I take it you're planning something, otherwise you wouldn't be here with that old sword case."

"True, old friend," Kakashi replied. "I'd like to keep this a bit hush-hush, if you don't mind. May we speak inside?"

Tenrai looked around. The streets seemed empty at this moment, nobody in sight, yet Kakashi wanted to speak indoors? The former Jounin was jumpy, and Tenrai wondered why. Stepping away from the threshold, the blacksmith ushered the ninja in with a wave of his arm. Kakashi nodded his head in thanks and closed the door behind him as he entered.

While the actual home portion of the building was situated on the second floor, the ground floor of the house served as both a shop and a forge. The floor was hardwood, glossy and well-maintained, and there was little décor but for the weapon displays on the walls. The forge, its entrance located behind the reception desk, used the bare earth as its floor and contained nothing but tools and a hot furnace.

"What is this about, Kakashi?" asked Tenrai, crossing his arms once again. "You've been out of the game for over a year, and just this morning you were worse for wear than a bum. Now you show up on my doorstep, carrying _that _old box and looking like you'd never retired. Since I can take a guess on what you're gonna ask me to do, I think you owe me an explanation."

"You're right," the former Jounin sighed heavily. "I know that there are plenty of reasons for you to be suspicious. I know the least I could do is tell you what I'm thinking…"

Tenrai began to tap his left foot on the hardwood floor of his house, his impatience building at Kakashi's hesitation.

"…But I can't," finished the Copy-nin. "The only thing I can tell you is that I know now what I have to do to make amends for the past. And, if I intend to follow through, my father's ninjato must be reforged."

The blacksmith eyed Kakashi piercingly, his arms still crossed before his chest. He remained that way for another two minutes after Kakashi's words, carefully scrutinizing the silver-haired man. The masked former shinobi held the gaze evenly, never looking away for even a moment. Finally, with an exasperated breath, Masamune Tenrai turned and approached the door to his forge.

"Leave the ninjato here," the smithy said as he reached the doorway. "A weapon like that will require a special touch, so it won't be done till tomorrow. Until that time, I'd rather you be away from this house, so that I or my family will have less to be implicated in when you go off to do whatever it is you plan on doing."

"Very well, Tenrai-san," Kakashi replied. "And thank you."

With that, Kakashi left Tenrai's house and began to make his way to back to his own home. It was only his rusty and unexercised abilities that prevented him from sensing the glaring eyes watching from across the road as he exited the home of the master blacksmith.

-----

**Author's Note: **And there you have it. One very small update to hopefully get his thing back on track. You're probably left wondering, "Where the hell do you intend to go after an update like this?"

Well, don't worry. I still remember where I am supposed to go with this story, and within the next two chapters I should be there. Better yet, my enlistment is up come January and I'm going home, so I will now be free to write as I wish. In the meantime, try to be open regarding the next couple of updates. I'm pretty rusty.

-Silenius-


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Naruto. It is the creative work of Masashi Kishimoto, and I am just borrowing his characters for fun.

**Author's Note:** Well, hopefully four months of absence is better than two years, right? Well, be warned, this is the shortest of all my chapters so far. Real life's a bitch, always has been, always will, and with the economic crisis in the US right now, I seem to be on a neverending quest to find employment. As such, I hope you can forgive me if updates are infrequent and of lesser quality than usual, but know that I intend to continue this story as best I can. Anyway, enough of my rambling. Enjoy the chapter.

-----

"Is this information accurate?"

The Godaime's words were like steel, cold and sharp, as her glare bored into the slits in the mask of the ANBU standing at attention before her. The shinobi remained stock-still, not even so much as flinching beneath the gaze of his Hokage.

"Hai, Hokage-sama. There was no mistaking it was him," came the reply, mechanical and emotionless.

Or rather, emotionless but for the tiny hint of suppressed rage that only those with Tsunade's level of skill could detect.

"So, Hatake Kakashi is out and about once more. Why is this a concern?" Tsunade asked in monotone, ceasing her glare and appearing disinterested.

The Godaime Hokage took note of how the ANBU's fist clenched reflexively even as the shinobi was making a strained attempt to maintain his professional bearing. The ninja responded slowly, though the frustration was still evident in his voice regardless of his efforts.

"Hatake was clearly requisitioning something from Tenrai-san's shop, despite being retired. This doesn't make you the least bit concerned or curious, Hokage-sama?"

Truth be told, it _did_ make Tsunade concerned. Kakashi officially retired after Naruto's death, which made it perfectly legal for him to leave Konohagakure for good if he so wanted. But if he now intended some kind of mischief, it was her duty as Hokage to make certain it would not place the village in any danger. However, she was well aware that it was not out of concern for the village that Umino Iruka had reported to her with such news. The ANBU agent was merely looking for an excuse to throttle Kakashi, and Tsunade wasn't going to allow that if the retired shinobi didn't deserve it.

"Did you question Tenrai-san about the nature of Kakashi's visit?" Tsunade queried, leaving Iruka's previous question unanswered. The shinobi took the hint and answered immediately.

"No, Hokage-sama. Private orders requested by registered shinobi retirees and civilians are allowed an amount of confidentiality under village law, unless probable cause or an official order by the Hokage or the Village Advisory Council dictate otherwise. As it stands, it would have been uncouth of me to inquire about Hatake's order."

Tsunade reached into her desk, pulling a scroll from within. Swiftly, she scribbled out something onto the scroll, signed the contents, and sealed it with her official seal.

"Here is your official order, codename _Sensei_," spoke the Hokage, her voice flat. "Ask Tenrai what you must, but do not directly confront Kakashi. Once you get the information about the order he placed, use whatever means you must to find out what he is planning. But, I repeat, do not allow Kakashi to find out about our investigation."

"Hai, Hokage-sama."

And with that, the ANBU vanished.

Tsunade roughly massaged her temples, the beginning of a particularly nasty migraine already setting in. The idea that Hatake Kakashi might be up to something suspicious had her on edge, regardless that it might all be in Iruka's head. The fact that she had a meeting with the Village Advisory Council in less than half an hour did not help matters.

Silently withdrawing a bottle from a hidden compartment in her desk (one that Shizune had yet to discover), she threw back her head and downed it in three gulps. Feeling a little buzz kick in, she checked to make sure she had more alcohol for later. After all, she had a feeling the rest of the day was going to be quite a pain.

-----

A wonderful fragrance filling the shop where she worked, a young pink-haired woman flipped the sign on the glass front doors to 'Open' and set about her daily ritual of watering, pruning and arranging the various flowers to be sold that day.

Haruno Sakura hadn't been a kunoichi since the day of Naruto's funeral. The circumstances of Sasuke's defection led abruptly to her involuntary separation from the ninja forces, so she was forced to scrape out some kind of existence as a civilian. Her friendship with Yamanaka Ino allowed her to acquire a job working at the Yamanaka Flower Shop and, after over a year of labor, she had slowly begun to make a recovery. But the nightmares of that time still persisted, and the young girl eventually learned to simply accept that she could never completely forgive herself. After all, one cannot simply brush aside murder.

People could find blame in many facets of the event. It had been Sasuke who struck the killing blow, it had been Kakashi who taught the Uchiha avenger the Chidori, and it had been Orochimaru who had warped Sasuke's mind with offers of power and the taint of the Cursed Seal. Yet, Sakura knew exactly whom the true blame rested with.

The one who held the most blame, and the most guilt, was none other than herself. She had been the last to see him within the village, the one who possessed every opportunity to have him turned in while he was still within reach. Instead, she had pleaded with him to take her along, told him she didn't care about anything else as long as she could be by his side. Her foolish one-sided love led to nothing but being knocked unconscious, and by the time she awoke, Sasuke was long gone…

…and Naruto's terrible fate had been sealed.

The first time she realized exactly what she had done, she had been facing down Tsunade and the Interrogation Department the night when Kakashi returned to Konoha with Naruto's corpse…

-----

_Under the hard questioning and glares of the Hokage, Morino Ibiki, and Mitarashi Anko, she told them everything that had happened. It was the closest to death she had ever come. Ibiki's and Anko's disgusted scowls and cutting remarks regarding her utter disgrace and treachery toward everything she was taught did not affect her nearly as much as what she saw from the Godaime Hokage._

_Tsunade's boundless rage was punctuated even more by the tears streaming down her face. The blonde woman shook violently, the amount of restraint keeping her from pulverizing Sakura into dust clearly visible and even more frightening._

"_You are telling me," the Hokage said, every word spoken slowly, each one laced with venomous hate and disgust, "Naruto was murdered due to your own selfish negligence? That, despite the fact that you knew where Sasuke would be, you went to the spot completely alone, you deliberately chose to inform NO ONE, and you even went so far as to BEG him to take you ALONG when he left?!"_

_By the time Tsunade's sentence had ended, her desk had vanished, vaporized by a fist determined the vent its fury. In an instant, the blonde woman was standing over the pinkette, her killing intent so potent that it brought the young girl to her knees. The gaze from the amber eyes of the Godaime pierced through Sakura like a spear._

"_H-H-Hokage-sama, I-I d-didn't…"_

"_SILENCE! I will hear none of your excuses!"_

_Leaving the others in the room both stunned and frightened, an amazing feat considering who they were, Tsunade grasped Sakura by the neck to stare into the young Genin's terrified eyes._

"_While you passed on news of Sasuke's defection to Izumo and Kotetsu after the fact, I have every right to execute you for 'treason' and 'conspiracy to defect' right here and now. And believe me, it is VERY tempting."_

_The Hokage released the girl from her iron grasp, the pinkette falling ungracefully to the floor in a trembling heap._

"_As it stands," Tsunade continued with something between a sigh and a growl, "Naruto cared for you. So, out of respect for him, I will limit your sentence. Haruno Sakura, from this point forward you are stripped of your shinobi rank and dishonorably discharged. In addition to this, you are hereby placed on house arrest for a period of six months and will participate in no less than fifteen hundred hours of community service. Should you fail to adhere to the terms of your punishment, you shall be executed with no questions asked. Do you understand?"_

_At the time, it had taken all of Sakura's willpower simply to nod._

_Later, having been allowed to attend the funeral, Sakura had come to understand just how responsible she had been in Naruto's demise. It was for this reason she was not worthy to talk about him. She did not know him, she'd never tried. She rarely showed him kindness, only annoyance and violent anger. And in the end, he still used all the power he had to try and return Sasuke to Konoha, to _her_…_

…_And he never would have had to do so if Sakura had not betrayed him with her actions._

-----

The pain of that realization had subsided very little over the course of the last year, but Sakura embraced it. It was her penance, a reminder that it was she who killed her teammate. A difficult reminder to live with, but no more than she believed she deserved.

The bell of the flower shop rang sharply, drawing Sakura out of her introspective haze. Setting down her tools, she turned to face the customer, a practiced smile on her face. The smile disappeared almost instantly at the sight of Hatake Kakashi, former Jounin Sensei of Team Seven.

"Ohayo…Sakura," the retired shinobi greeted warmly, though a bit nervously.

"Ohayo-gozaimasu, Hatake-san," the girl replied, her speech cold and mechanical. "How may I help you today?"

Kakashi's face fell sadly at Sakura's 'greeting' and formal use of his surname.

"Sakura, I know you probably feel you can't trust me," he spoke, "and you have every reason to feel that way. But please, hear what I have to say."

"What could you possibly say to me, Hatake-san?" Sakura sharply responded, her words cutting the air like a razor. "You're no longer my teacher, nor a ninja. And neither am I. In all honesty, I was hardly ever a kunoichi to begin with. Simply a deluded girl chasing after the back of a boy who hated her while she treated a loyal and caring teammate like garbage."

"You shouldn't blame yourself-"

"That's rich coming from you, Kakashi!" the pinkette cut him off, her stoic demeanor broken. "You have no idea what happened that night! No idea just how close I came to a summary execution for treason the day Naruto died!"

Kakashi winced, the girl's words piercing him as thoroughly as a spear. "Sakura, I didn't know…"

"Of course not." Sakura scoffed. "But why would you? Since when did you ever bother taking me, or even Naruto into consideration? When you went off to teach Sasuke A-Rank techniques, you stuck Naruto with Ebisu-san and didn't so much as give me a glance. It was dumb luck that Naruto managed to train with Jiraiya-sama, and I was left doing NOTHING productive for an entire month. So, what could you possibly want to say to me now, huh?"

Kakashi took a breath and put on his serious face, knowing that it would calm Sakura's anger from shock or fear if nothing else. It worked well enough, the girl's anger losing its potency at the stern look from Kakashi's lone eye and masked face.

"I have made mistakes, Sakura," the silver-haired man admitted. "I've made a LOT of mistakes. But I have come here today to tell you that I have a way to rectify those mistakes. You deserve the chance to make amends even more than I do, so I ask you this. If you could make things right, through any means, would you be willing to do so?"

The question left Sakura confused and flat-footed. What kind of a question was this? If she could fix it, she would do so in a heartbeat. But that just wasn't possible, even for the famous Sharingan no Kakashi.

"What are you getting at, Hatake-san?"

"I'm 'getting at' exactly what it sounds like, Sakura," Kakashi replied. "So, I'll ask you once more. If you could do it all again, and do it right, would you?"

It took several moments for Sakura's mind to begin working once more. The idea behind Kakashi's question was absurd, impossible in even the most outrageous sense. And yet…some part of her knew, as she looked at the former shinobi, that he was being completely serious. The cold, determined, calculating look in his one visible eye proved well enough that he believed in what he was suggesting. And he wanted her to believe in what lay 'underneath the underneath,' too.

After reining in her thoughts, she managed a soft whisper.

"Yes."

With a nod and a satisfied smile in his eye, Kakashi pulled a small piece of paper from his pocket. He held it out to the young girl, who took it from him with a nervous hesitation.

"Those are directions to my clan house," the former ninja stated. "Meet me there tomorrow night at eleven. I'll be waiting."

Kakashi turned and headed toward the door. Just before exiting, he gave one last backward glance at his former student.

"We're going to fix this, Sakura. One way or another, things are going to be different."

And with that, the man left the shop, leaving behind a confused and anxious Haruno Sakura.

…Meanwhile, a lavender-eyed eavesdropper outside the shop's open window swiftly vacated the premises. With an awkward excitement that she was unfamiliar with, Hyuuga Hinata headed out to find the one other person who would share her interest in this curious new development.

Umino Iruka.

-----

**Author's Note:** And there you have it. The next chapter will feature the long awaited journey back through time, and with the hints I've been dropping, you can probably guess that Kakashi _may_ not be going alone (I say _may_ because it is not a decided factor by any means). Anyway, please leave a review and feel free to comment on what you would like to see (and perhaps _not_ see) in future updates. Thank you for your patience.

-Silenius-


	5. A Letter for the Faithful

Hello, everyone.

To those of you who are reading this expecting an update on my Kakashi-centric time travel fic "To Make Things Right", I apologize. Real life sapped a lot out of me, my imagination runs on fumes these days, and I am under a constant barrage of stress. As you can see if you've been following this story, these delays have been going on for YEARS. I will readily admit that I may never wind up continuing, let alone finishing, any of my works (though that is not to say I haven't tried. Oh, god, I TRIED!).

So, that being said, I am issuing a challenge. I don't want to see this story (or rather, this story 'idea') die. So, though I may eventually continue this story myself at some unknown time, I hereby give anyone who wishes to continue it themselves permission to do so on three conditions.

1. Please do not make the story into a yaoi, yuri, or otherwise slash fic of any kind. I have nothing against such tales, but it was never my intention for the story, and I wouldn't want to see it become that way. And that goes for ALL characters.

2. Try not to make Kakashi romantically involved with anyone, MOST ESPECIALLY NOT AN OC. It wasn't in the cards when I was making the story, and unless you manage to make it work exceptionally well, I think it would just keep the story from being as good as it can be.

3. Please, please, please, do NOT make the Kyuubi a female. There are very few fics in which Kyuubi has been female that I've actually managed to enjoy or even finish reading. Fem!Kyuubi just manages to tick me off in ways I can neither fully explain nor understand. Point being, Kyuubi is most certainly destined to be male, if ANY gender at all in "To Make Things Right", so please keep it such.

If anyone decides to take me up on this offer, I ask that you have fun with it. Make it exciting, throw in a few surprises, and if you'd like to know where I intended to take it, or if you're interested in any of the ideas I had that never found their way to print, please send me an email or a PM. Oh, and remember - though most of it is intended to focus on Kakashi at first, the whole point of the story is supposed to be about the differences that will be made when our favorite Jounin actually spends time properly training his team as a whole, as well as giving Naruto that extra bit of attention and training he both needs and deserves. All in hopes of preventing both Naruto's death and Sasuke's defection.

In conclusion, thank you for your continued support this long while. I only managed to get out four measly chapters over the course of over four incredibly long and tiring years, and yet this story garnered a whopping 113 reviews. Thank you all so very much. I love you with all of my being. To quote the greatest time traveler of them all: "You were _fantastic_!"

I wish I could have been the author you probably hoped I would be - that I could have given you the epic tale you were looking forward to. I fell short of the mark, and I am deeply sorry.

But here is looking to the future! Perhaps, somewhere down the line, I'll find the drive and inspiration to continue! Or maybe I'll start again with something else, completely from scratch! We will see. But until then, I once more thank you all for your patience, your praise, and your criticism.

Until we meet again,

Silenius


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